ARINC, Honeywell Sign GX Aviation Agreement

Honeywell has signed an agreement with ARINC Direct to bring Inmarsat's GX Aviation Kz-band solution to the business aviation market.

GX Aviation, scheduled to be available in early 2015, will utilize Ka-band satellites both to provide much higher broadband speeds than existing services, and consistent global coverage. Faster speeds will give business jet operators, owners and passengers the ability to work and entertain, all while over bodies of water and around the world. High speed connectivity will no longer be confined to local, land-based access.

The first Inmarsat Ka-band satellite is scheduled to be available to support a launch as early as December 2013, with full global coverage scheduled to be achieved by the end of 2014. Inmarsat has commissioned Boeing to build four Inmarsat-5 satellites to provide the service. By 2016 it is estimated there will be 10 billion mobile devices in the world, and demand for data traffic is expected to grow by a factor of 50 for smartphones and a factor of 62 for tablets.

This agreement with Honeywell provides ARINC Direct with the ability to sell GX aviation subscription service packages to Business Aviation operators. In addition to the airtime, ARINC Direct plans to develop innovative applications and services ranging from entertainment and software updates and upgrades, to technical aircraft maintenance and customer support. These planned applications and services open up the possibility for minimizing the amount of downtime needed for avionics software and database updates, as well as technician servicing and training. They will allow pilots and operators to be notified when a newer version of software or database information becomes available. With the simple press of a button, pilots would be able to upgrade their software or databases, in much the same way that current mobile operating system upgrades occur with personal mobile devices.

“We are pleased to start providing a new generation of high-speed broadband connections to our customers. This exciting technology will benefit both our existing and new customers," said ARINC Direct Senior Director David Stanley.